Socket type electrical watt-hour meters are used to measure and indicate the amount of electrical power consumption in a residence, industry or business. Typically, a socket type watt-hour meter plugs into a meter socket using a blade-like stab or meter blade connector located on the watt-hour meter. The meter socket itself is mounted inside a meter base or a panel. A meter socket commonly has a spring loaded receptacle-like jaw to receive and contact the watt-hour meter blade insertion. The meter jaw and spring provide enough force to press meter blade and conduct electricity while maintaining a certain current load and a heat rise.
The line side of a meter socket is connected to the utility electrical power source, while the load side of a meter socket is connected to the tenant. A watt-hour meter is inserted onto the meter jaws on a meter socket to bridge the line and load making the electrical connection between the utility power source and the tenant. In the industry, spring tempered copper meter jaws are mounted on meter sockets to receive plug-in watt-hour meters. Due to limited spacing and special application, the meter jaws carry high current density and have less contact surface area. Therefore, the contact surface may be weak for electrical connection between a meter jaw and a watt-hour meter blade, a meter jaw and its mount connector, and a meter jaw itself. This is evident in modular metering devices, which have heavier line and load buses and stronger bounding bus connections. Such weak positions with electrical connection make the components of meter jaw assemblies prone to damage during a power surge or electrical interruption. From a time saving perspective, it would be more beneficial to be able to change an individual front removable and replaceable meter jaw assembly on a meter socket or even replace a whole meter socket in modular metering devices whenever a meter jaw assembly or a meter socket is damaged, rather than replacing the whole meter box device.
Meter jaw alignment is another factor that affects meter socket performance conducting electricity. Meter jaw misalignment is caused by tolerance built-up in multiple components in fabrication and during the assembly process. In the field, meter jaw misalignment may cause service and reliability issues. A meter socket with misaligned meter jaws or meter jaw assemblies make installing a watt-hour meter more difficult. There will be connection issues for conduction of electricity. For example, a twisted, deformed or even damaged meter jaw may cause extensive heat on meter jaws.
Therefore there is a need for improvement in meter sockets and in particular meter jaw assemblies.
There is also a need to provide a robust meter socket base to assist precise meter jaw alignment with their mounting plates.